The fund's NAV has shown a decent growth mainly due to a lower interest rate regime. ``Thanks to the monetary policy initiatives from the RBI, interest rates have been falling for quite some time now. This has helped the fund generate good returns during the past three months. Also, we have been very active in churning our portfolio,'' said the fund manager.

However, the fund manager does not see a further fall in interest rates. The government has a huge borrowing programme and this may in fact suck some liquidity out of the system, he said. The fund, with a total corpus of Rs 22 crore, is planning to increase its exposure to AAA rated debt instruments substantially. ``Of the total corpus, we plan to take our exposure in AAA rated debt instruments upto 70 per cent in future,'' said Mital. As on April 30, 2000, Escorts Income Plan has 37 per cent of its corpus in AAA-rated debt instruments, 32 per cent in AA-rated debt, 21 per cent in debts with A rating and 10 per cent in unrated securities.

As on April 30, of the total corpus, the fund has an investment of 42 per cent in government agencies' debt, 39 per cent in financial institutions' and banks', 12 per cent as call money deposits, five per cent in corporate debt and two per cent in government securities.

The latest portfolio of the fund (as on April 30, 2000) shows that it has invested a sizeable Rs 1.08 crore in Gujarat Ambuja Cement's debt, Rs 1.98 crore in Bank of Maharashtra, Rs 1.44 crore in IDBI, Rs 2.03 crore in Coal India, Rs 2.43 crore in Sardar Sarovar Narmada, Rs 1 crore in MKVDC, Rs 1.23 crore in SBI (floating rate bond), Rs 1.14 crore in APSEB and Rs 1.07 crore in KSEB.

The income plan has growth option for capital appreciation and dividend option for regular return. The minimum investment is Rs 1000. There is no TDS on redemption of the fund and it has no exit load.